Leila Abdallah pregnant again after death of her three children in Oatlands crash
After darkness comes the light. Leila Abdallah — the woman who captured the heart of Sydney by forgiving the drunk-driver who killed her three children and their cousin — is pregnant.
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After darkness comes the light.
Leila Abdallah — the woman who captured the heart of Sydney by forgiving the drunk-driver who killed her three children and their cousin — is pregnant and due to give birth in March.
The family will welcome the new baby and the joy of a new beginning almost two years after the horror crash in Oatlands that changed the course of their lives.
“We dare to dream again,” Mrs Abdallah, 37, said.
For Leila and her husband Danny the pregnancy is a stunning triumph of hope in the face of adversity.
In an interview the couple told how the pregnancy represents their drive to give their surviving children Liana, 12, Alex, 7 and Michael, 5, fresh hope with the joy of a new sibling after the trauma of the accident.
“My children prayed they could have another brother or sister,” Mrs Abdallah said.
“This is a new life, a new beginning for the kids, it has given them a new purpose in life. And seeing them happy and giving them joy is my purpose in life now.”
The strength and grace of their eldest surviving daughter Liana — who wants to be a mother figure for the new baby — inspired Mrs Abdallah to keep trying for a seventh child after a miscarriage.
After the horror of that day in February 2020, the Abdallah parents made a deliberate decision that they did not want their children to suffer years of misery but to go on and live full lives while still grieving their siblings.
This means deliberate work by the parents every day not to transfer their pain onto their children.
“I want it to be Leila and I who will carry this to the grave and I don’t want it to be them,” Mr Abdallah said, motioning to his children.
“We don’t want to bring them down. We want them to get married and flourish and have full lives and dream again. That is what this new baby means.”
But the pain of losing three children is naturally part of every day for the family.
Stunning portraits of Antony, Angelina and Sienna loom large in the living room.
The surviving children talk about their lost siblings and how they look like them or act like them.
“The pain is always there. It is a part of us. We are still pretty limited,” Mr Abdallah said. “We can’t go to a big party with music but slowly we are learning to live again and talk about our identity again. But we keep smiling.”
Mrs Abdallah invited her children to speak about the announcement, with eldest Liana saying she wanted nothing for Christmas but baby clothes for the new baby.
“I’m going to be like a mother,” Liana said.
Michael prayed for a baby. “I said ‘please God let me mum have a baby’,” he said.
Alex said he was helping his mum prepare for the baby, “telling her to take care of herself”.
The children will help name the baby, which Mrs Abdallah said will be bestowed with the name of either Antony, Angelina or Sienna as a middle name.
For the family, life is in two eras.
“There is the Abdallah family BT, before tragedy, and the Abdallah family AT, after tragedy,” Mr Abdallah said.
“It’s like a timeline for us. We had to look at what we could do and what tools we needed to keep going.
“The tools are forgiveness. It is daily choices you make that will get you to your destination. Every day we choose to walk this narrow road. If you make choices here, you reap the rewards there. This pregnancy is a reward.”
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Originally published as Leila Abdallah pregnant again after death of her three children in Oatlands crash
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